Irvin is being asked to create his own offense with Walton and Levert out. That's not his strength. Hence the errors, blocks, etc. Yes he needs to improve that part of his game, but don't act surprised when you see the results of today.

OP said if Bryant stretch 6 more inches and broke the end zone plane then it's a TD and not incomplete. Michigan248 is just saying that's not correct, and it's still an incomplete pass even if Bryant gets the ball across the plane before it comes loose. I don't know if that is correct (by the rules) but I think that's 248's point which makes your comment not make sense to me.

Let me give a maize-and-blue tinged 3rd option - which I don't find all that far-fetched.

3) There is no specific intent to the leak. No leverage, no message to the fans. Instead, the deal is done*, and has been for some time (maybe days or a week+). People familiar with the deal, probably on Michigan's side, are getting loose lipped because, why not? Deal is done, people are excited and start talking.

* by "done" I mean agreed to in principle, not necessarily signed in blood

If my memory is correct there were 6 "projects", 1 mid-term exam, and 1 final exam.

Both my mid-term and final exam scores were at or above 95%. And I still got a C in the class. That tells you the importance of the coding projects.

They are (or were, I'm talking about 12 yrs ago) very time consuming. The auto-grader [shudder] was very unforgiving. I spent more time on EECS 280 that semester than any other class. So... much... debugging....

Good lip reading. I was willing to hear the official story before really getting on Hoke, but after watching again (and again) it's pretty bad. Even if Shane passed his concussion test there is no reason to insert Shane back into the game. Call a timeout. Whether this costs Hoke his job mid-season- we shall see.

I don't want to get in a big long debate over it, but something just rings a little disingenuous about this whole "fire Hoke because Shane" uproar.

In general I agree that Hoke mishandled the situation - but let's be honest with ourselves: If Michigan were 5-0 right now there would be nobody calling for Hoke's head over this. We'd be concerned for Shane's health, wonder aloud if Hoke should have pulled him sooner, and move on to the next opponent.

So let's call it what it is: we don't like Hoke because he doesn't win games, and this Shane incident is a convenient excuse to get our pitchfork on.

Again: I AGREE HOKE SHOULD HAVE TAKEN SHANE OUT OF THE GAME. Let's just be clear it's not the main reason we want Hoke gone.

I guess I need to know the NFL's intention. Are they trying to encourage more teams to go for two? (And not just in late game situations.)

If a 42 yd FG is coverted 83% of the time, then the expected pt value of the XP would be 1 x 0.83 = 0.83 pts.

If a 2-pt conversion is converted 50% of the time (which I think is roughly correct), then the expected pt value of it would be 2 x 0.5 = 1 pt.

As it stands now, the XP and 2-pt conversion have the same expected value of ~1 pt. So risk averse coaches take the safe route and kick the XP. But if coaches are getting a risk premium to go for two - in this case +0.17 pts - then maybe that changes their strategy.

But I just don't think the risk premium of +0.17 pts is enough to change a coach's mind.

I agree with you regarding BTN2GO. The few times I've tried to use it to watch something using the BTN2GO app something always went wrong. The most common problem is the stream would just cut off. So then you have to exit the app, relaunch it, watch another 30 second advertisement for Buick, then get treated to a choppy video stream.

If you want to use Watch ESPN, you'll need a cable subscription (or account+password of a relative/friend). As someone else mentioned, sometimes you'll get lucky and be able to watch a random game for free, but you can't rely on it.

If you want to watch BTN on Roku, I don't know of a solution. There's no channel for it. If you use Apple TV and have an iPhone or iPad, you can download the BTN2GO app and Airplay to the Apple TV. Once again, this requires a cable subscription.

I could be wrong, but I think Watch ESPN blacks out local games that are being broadcast on ABC, but you could always use an antenna to watch those games. (Or subscribe to Aereo if you live in an area where it's supported, like Detroit.)

I thought the same thing as I watched the game. Izzo was on the court, just a few feet from the action. If I were a player I'd be tempted to dribble right at him and plow him over. It'd be hilarious to watch a ref make a confused-looking-blocking-call against Izzo. It's one thing to be barely on the court, but Izzo was too far out there. I'm a little surprised the ref didn't stop play and issue a warning - OK not surprised at all actually. (And it's possible they warned Izzo later I suppose.)

Regardless, the coaches didn't have the players ready last night. Burke proved to me once again that he is an elite player but also some leadership as well. Overall the team played sloppy and indecisive. The coaches didn't have an answer to MSU's perimeter defense. The coaches didn't have an answer to MSU's post play. The players didn't match MSU's hustle to rebounds and loose balls. The players didn't take care of the ball. Complete failure on Michigan's part. MSU was prepared and out-worked Michigan. End of story.

According to your link intent is meaningless. Perhaps that's why you put it in quotes, but that wasn't clear to me.

I don't think the contact was severe or extreme, so by my judgement it is not a flagrant 2.

From the NCAA rule book:

c. Flagrant 1 personal foul. A flagrant 1 personal foul shall be a personal foul that is deemed excessive in nature and/or unnecessary, but not based solely on the severity of the act. Examples include, but are not limited to:
1. Causing excessive contact with an opponent while playing the ball;
2. Contact that is not a legitimate attempt to play the ball or player, specifically designed to stop or keep the clock from starting;
3. Pushing or holding a player from behind to prevent a score;
4. Fouling a player clearly away from the ball who is not directly involved with the play, specifically designed to stop or keep the clock from starting; and
5. Contact with a player making a throw-in. (Women) This act shall also serve as a team warning for reaching through the boundary. (See Rule 4-17.1.g.)
6. Illegal contact with an elbow that occurs above the shoulders of an opponent when the elbows are not swung excessively per 4-36.7.a.Rule 4 / definitions 53d. Flagrant 2 personal foul. A flagrant 2 personal foul shall be a personal foul that involves contact with an opponent that is not only excessive, but also severe or extreme while the ball is live.

Rule 4 Section 36 Article 7

Art. 7. The following shall be considered excessive swinging:

a. When arm(s) and elbow(s) are swung about while using the shoulders as pivots, and the speed of the extended arm(s) and elbow(s) exceeds that of the rest of the body as it rotates on the hips or on the pivot foot; or

b. When the speed and vigor with which the arm(s) and elbow(s) are swung is such that injury could result if another player were contacted.

What it boils down to is this: a flagrant 1 foul is a personal foul that is excessive or involves swinging elbows above the shoulders (which doesn't apply in this case).

So was Craft's foul excessive? I think yes, but it's still a judgement call.

I'm happy to see things moving in this direction, but I wouldn't get too excited for this offering. My guess is the initial pricing won't be the huge benefit to consumers that we all want. The content providers will charge Intel a premium that will of course be passed to the consumer. So unless you will subscribe to only a few channels, my guess is the current bundled model will be more cost effective FOR NOW.

But, baby steps and all that, so any progress is great news. Give this new business model time to mature and prices will come down.

Fitzgerald's reaction was odd... I can't recall a head coach acting like that unless it's a game-winning play. Assistant coaches, sure. But head coaches are usually more stoic than that.

Add in the fact that he was celebrating a late hit call on his QB... seems like his first reaction should be concern for his QB or anger at a "cheap shot" but instead he's jumping around like he just got an N64 for Christmas.

Smith: Arms appear to be under ball, no replay angle ever shows the ball hitting the ground -> ruling on the field stands. The argument that "no way does the ball do that unless it hits the ground" is dumb. Yes it's possible, and it's not the replay officials place to speculate on it.

If you want to debate it, that's fine. But it's nowhere near "we were robbed" territory and there is no conspiracy here. Both were close calls that, given the video evidence, I think the officials made the correct decisions.

I get your argument regarding the Roundtree call... But from my experience watching college football, that when the ball moves as much as it did when it touched the ground, it's going to be ruled incomplete more times than not.

Let's face it: if that same play happened to Nebraska, you'd be screaming "Incomplete!" at your TV.

... but the "MGOBLOG" font and gradient coloring has always reminded me of the cheesy MS Word WordArt. I'd prefer something a little more clean, but hey it's not my blog and I come here for the content and not the graphics.

Terrence Owens, left-handed QB at Toledo, was drafted by San Diego in the 40th round of the MLB draft. He doesn't play baseball. But the Padres used a late round pick on the chance he might be developed into a pitcher.

What does "#1 branded" mean? I think I remember hearing something about Michigan must be the highest paid school in the Adidas stable... but from a branding standpoint I see a lot of Notre Dame stuff in the Adidas TV commercials but no Michigan.

I've defended (for lack of a better word) Valenti in the past, because when he's not talking about Michigan I think he's entertaining, but today he was over the top. So Pat Caputo wrote that Michigan has caught up to MSU in basketball... Most Michigan fans, especially those around here, don't think that's true. Sure we're getting closer but one season where we tie them in the B1G does not mean we are their equals. So I don't care that Valenti took exception to Caputo's blog post.

But the contrived anger that he was spouting off was absurd. I can't stand that. Sort of unrelated but it also seems like Valenti has been getting a little cocky on the air regarding his status within the station... almost like he's trying to big time his coworkers. He does it behind the veil of sarcasm but it comes off poorly (in my opinion).

This is the NCAA we're talking about, so don't expect them to apply any discretion.

But I'm guessing the punishment for such an offense is minimal, if anything. The NCAA doesn't want player recruitments to play out in public over Twitter, and I guess I can't blame them. Recruiting is the wild west as it is.

At first I thought you were arguing that instead of putting all of our scholarship eggs into the Diamond/Reeves/Kozan/Wright/etc. basket we should have filled the spots with some project 3 stars instead (because it's better than nothing).... which OK I'll hear that argument.

Then you lost me when you had expectations that we should have got five 5 stars instead of two. (1) That's a pretty large thing to expect to happen. (2) Hoke & co. went after those 5 star recruits hard and just missed out. What more do you want from the coaching staff?

Chris Rock (comedian) joined SNL in 1990, so Chris Rock's (football) parents may have known of the celebrity name connection. Either way, Chris Rock (comedian) was not 10 years old when Chris Rock (football) was born. He was in his late 20s.

I'm not very knowledable of the management structure of the BCS, but just looking at the outcome the bowl hosts seem to have the better end of the agreement (financially). I'm not sure when the contracts would be up for negotiation, but it certainly wouldn't be unprecedented for one party (in this case the schools) demand renegotiation based on unfairness. Yes I know that the schools only have themselves to blame if they agreed to the terms in the first place but in my opinion it shouldn't stop them from trying to perhaps work something out through arbitration. The whole system feels like a house of cards to some extent anyways... not sustainable if for no other reason than eventually the public outcry will demand changes (at least I hope the public will get sick of stupid meaningless bowl games).

TL;DR: Just because the schools got themselves into this mess doesn't mean there aren't options to fix it... I think they have enough leverage to do so.

It seems like the power conferences can/should get together and champion some sort of bowl reform. There's money to be made by both sides (schools and bowl hosts) and the schools should hold enough power to make the financial terms more balanced.

could the conferences themselves impose such restrictions? for instance the MAC could require that all schools planning on going to a bowl game must present a reasonable business case or else it cannot accept the bid? this would also create pressure for the bowls to ease up on the ticket/hotel obligations. this might also result in the eventual collapse of some of the lesser bowl games once the financial burden is shifted from the school to the bowl sponsors.

There was a story about a freelance film maker who got his Google Adsense account terminated (and funds he had earned were revoked) because he violated Google's TOS by encouraging his blog readers to click ads.

I'm not sure what Apple's iAd TOS says, but please be careful, I'd hate to see you lose money over this.

Not working on anything, just happened to notice that Michigan withdrew from the conference for a period of time and curiosity took over from there. I read your post on the subject at MVictors, it was really great. It provided the background I was looking for. If the Daily has something cooking on this subject then I might sit tight and see what gets published. If I have time I might check out some of the books that have been suggested.

This is just the kind of explanation I was looking for. Thanks for that link.

Also, it's funny how throughout history the same schools have been mentioned in expansion talks (ND, Rutgers, Texas, Nebraska, Pittsburgh, ...) as are discussed today. (this was mentioned by someone else in this thread too).

Another tidbit I didn't know that I read while researching... the Big Ten wasn't officially called the Big Ten until 1987 (officially it was the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representatives).

Why did I listen to that. I knew it would piss me off. But it pissed me off more than I expected.

One thing that stood out to me... he says that it's his job to present facts so fans can make up their minds. He then proceeds to make HUGE assumptions and generalizations that are based on ZERO facts and concludes that Mr. Dorsey is, likely, a criminal. This, to me, is extremely slanderous and downright reckless. Mr. Sharp needs a few days off from work for this, in my opinion.

The only point he made that I thought was valid was about fans needing to take a more objective stance when evaluating the personal conduct of players. I only wish he would follow his own advice.

I usually defend him because he's a radio personality PAID to have an opinion and usually it's a little over the top but, well, that's more entertaining than the same opinion everyone has. I'd rather listen to that than some of the other boring personalities at WXYT (I'm looking at you Caputo and Fithian).

What irks me about him though is he will contradict himself (callers often call him out on it, but then he just berates the caller and hangs up on them).

For example, I think it was prior to the ND game, Valenti was arguing that Warren and Cissoko were a top 5 or top 10 cornerback combo IN THE COUNTRY. Today, he's scoffing at people for thinking Cissoko was any good because he had recruiting hype.

Today he was in full-out "anger-Michigan-fan" mode, which is so frustrating to listen to. Best thing to do: switch him off for the day.

I don't think that punishing a player for violating team rules is consistent with the intent of the NCAA mandatory workout limits.

Lloyd could have simply kicked Arrington off the team, thus revoking his scholarship for violating team rules. Instead, he gave Arrington a choice: run stairs at 6am and MAYBE you will get a second chance.

The intent of the NCAA workout limits is to (1) protect the student-athlete from being overworked such that their academic obligations suffer and (2) keep coaches away in the off-season to maintain a level playing field.

This is just my interpretation of the spirit of the rules and I don't think situations like Arrington's are what the NCAA was trying to regulate when the limits were enacted.

FSU should have ran a quick play on 3rd down with 5 seconds left so they could run another play on 4th down if needed. The previous play only took 4 seconds. Somewhat risky, but rolling out the QB guarantees that it's the last play of the game.

There was a PDF of some Wolverine e-magazine that I read a year back or so that had more info about his life now as a plant manager. I'll see if I can dig it up... does anyone know what the name of the e-mag I'm thinking of?

EDIT: Does GoBlueWolverine publish a monthly PDF or something? For some reason that is sticking in my head. I don't have a subscription, but if someone else does and has access to their archives (if it exists) then maybe it can be found there.

I remember not knowing until I saw Henne warming up prior to kick-off and thinking "holy sh*t, Henne is getting the start". Most people around me in the student section didn't know what was going on. Finally someone privy told me that he overhead that Gutz was "hurt".

Regarding the rant - he's a fan and he got emotional about his team. Unfortunately for him (but good for us) he was on the air when he blew off some steam. I like that he's passionate about his team.

Regarding the Corey Smith jokes - Read my earlier comment, it was a mistake but I don't think he's a bad guy who regularly makes fun of the deceased.

Regarding him being the best/worst - to each's own. I know plenty of people who can't stand Valenti. For whatever reason, I find him entertaining. He sometimes tries to get analytical when that's obviously not his strength, but again, I think he's better than the rest of the 97.1 personalities.

In defense of Valenti, he was reading a listener's "instant feedback" joke. It was in poor taste, Valenti acknowledged that it was before he read it, and Terry Foster encouraged him to read it anyways. He made a quick decision to read it, it was the wrong decision. But I don't hold anything against him regarding this incident.

I agree that Valenti is the best Detroit sports radio host. I think Karsch is number 2. Sure Valenti can be abrasive at times and his MSU homerism shines through occasionally but for the most part his commentary is pretty good. He at least has some personality, which is more than a lot of the guys at that station can say.

Like many things in life, you need to understand the boundaries of what is appropriate vs inappropriate. It's probably ok to wish a recruit good luck and give him a "Go Blue!" at the end of your message. It's not ok to leave negative feedback.

Also remember, if you are a season ticket holder you can be considered an athletic booster, and as such the NCAA puts restrictions and the types of communication you can have with prospective recruits.

A safe rule to follow: if you are questioning whether something is appropriate, either don't do it or find out.

I'm a big fan of the Solid Verbal podcast. I've missed the last few though (I usually only listen when I have long car rides by myself, which hasn't happened recently) and I had no idea that you were going to be on. I'll definitely check it out first chance I get.

Agreed, Grady is an adult and ultimately it's his responsibility to comply with the law (and the court's orders). The only advice he should be taking from anyone is his lawyer, and I don't think a lawyer would fumble something this badly.

Does this have any impact on our APR score, either directly or indirectly?

In other words, if he gets kicked off the team but still graduates, there should be no negative effect on the APR? However, if getting booted from the team leads to his saying "eff it" and fails to complete the graduation requirements, then I assume in that case the APR gets dinged (even though he's a senior and would be done anyway...)

I agree with you that Haloscan certainly had its downfalls and limitations, which you summed up nicely. And perhaps I was being too literal when I said I would give my left nut or whatever to get Haloscan back... what I was really trying to convey is that I wanted the community of the Haloscan days back.

I don't know exactly how to say it other than this: it was different back then.

And just so I'm clear, this is in no way Brian's fault. His content is still A++ as far as I'm concerned. I think the root of the problem is the site got way more popular, and with it more riff raff showed up, leading to the perfect storm of cynicism and tempers we see today.

Haloscan is the old commenting system that was used at MGoBlog when it was still residing at blogspot.com (pre-June '08). If you go to mgoblog.blogspot.com I think you can still browse the old Haloscan comments, but closed to new comments.

I discovered MGoBlog a few years ago. A friend told me about this Michigan fan on the internet who breaks down EVERY SINGLE PLAY of EVERY SINGLE GAME and posts his analysis. The next day I typed "mgoblog" into google and away I went.

Before that day, I spent my time at work checking ESPN, CFN, anything I could get my hands on that might mention Michigan football and provide some analysis. Thinking back on these days it seems so archaic, so inefficient. Yet my ignorance permitted me to accept the status quo and be happy with what I had.

All this changed the day of that google search. I digested each UFR quickly yet carefully, revisiting the play in my mind while reading one man's opinion as to why it was successful or doomed. And charts? Charts.

Haloscan, it had charm didn't it? I wore out my F5 key refreshing that tiny little Haloscan window, perfect for reading incognito at work. Sure there was lots of nonsense going on even back then... who can forget all the namejacking and the ensuing tomfoolery. But it always seemed in good fun. And despite the nonsense, there was always good conversation and content in those comment threads. I miss Haloscan.

And now here we are today, and Brian is asking people to chill out. Nostalgia definitely skews our memory, but dammit I would give my virtual left nut to have those Haloscan days back. I still love the meat and potatoes of MGoBlog as much as I did before, but my affinity for the community has declined drastically.

Hell, maybe once the season is here things will be better. The offseason does crazy things to people.

A commenter over at UM Hoops has linked to a message board post at the Clemson Scout site that is claiming the game time is 7:10 EST. I have no idea how reliable this is, I haven't seen this anywhere else.

that game took it out of me. I was rooting for UConn but only because we played them this year so I figured it would help our SOS if UConn won (not that it should matter anymore, but I like to see that strong SOS).

EDIT: I have no idea how SOS actually works, I've never bothered to look it up, I'm just assuming that UConn losing hurts our SOS, even if by just a small amount. Someone feel free to put me in place if I'm wrong.

because my girlfriend (who couldn't care less about Michigan basketball and never watches) walked by the TV on Saturday while I was watching the game, glanced at the screen and said "whoa, new shoes huh?"

Of course she also bought me tickets to the NW game earlier in the season for my birthday, so she can stick around.